{"id":348902,"date":"2026-07-22T19:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348902\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:14:21","slug":"school-leaders-in-pinellas-say-public-can-weigh-in-on-futre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/348902\/","title":{"rendered":"School leaders in Pinellas say public can weigh in on futre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Pinellas County Schools continues to solicit feedback to see how best to move forward with closing and consolidating schools.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2026\/07\/21\/pinellas-school-board-to-receive-update-on-potential-school-closures-\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PREVIOUS STORY:\u00a0Pinellas school board to receive update on potential school closures<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The school board discussed what it calls Planning for Progress at a school board workshop Tuesday, along with the reasons behind the community meetings.<\/p>\n<p>The district said student enrollment has decreased across the county, largely because of declining birth rates and the cost of living. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said there has been a decline of 20,000 students since fiscal year 2016-17.<\/p>\n<p>Feedback from in-person sessions and an <a href=\"https:\/\/my.thoughtexchange.com\/participate\/918530450?fbclid=IwY2xjawTMVbFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE1dFJ5TFczRXVzTWJpM2NMc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHlm_sNXjd8aMfsOI3D6VmP7UEHAU5gIZOKLuVHe3dfnj9XcI8--BCYKdXXX5_aem_ToYZc6tvbxLKgCBdHeIobg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">online survey<\/a> could shed light on the future of the school district.<\/p>\n<p>About 600 people attended recent meetings, and so far, 1,000 surveys have been completed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat that feedback is going to do, it&#8217;s going to help them tailor the recommendations that they provide to the board,&#8221; said Pinellas County School Board Chair Caprice Edmond. &#8220;Once the board received those recommendations, those will become publicly available, and the community can provide additional feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The survey <a href=\"https:\/\/my.thoughtexchange.com\/participate\/918530450?fbclid=IwY2xjawTMVbFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE1dFJ5TFczRXVzTWJpM2NMc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHlm_sNXjd8aMfsOI3D6VmP7UEHAU5gIZOKLuVHe3dfnj9XcI8--BCYKdXXX5_aem_ToYZc6tvbxLKgCBdHeIobg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">is available online until Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Edmond shared what she learned attending sessions in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamilies would like smaller classrooms. Some mentioned additional K-8,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Participants were also asked about childcare, technical schools, how to reimagine a vacant campus and school size.<\/p>\n<p>While some board members said they are hearing people appreciate transparency, others said there is room for improvement.<\/p>\n<p>As far as a timeline for the recommendations, proposals will be brought to the board and voted on in the fall.<\/p>\n<p>Approved recommendations are expected to be implemented next spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Pinellas County Schools continues to solicit feedback to see how best to move forward&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[4996,274,113,1187,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-348902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-education","tag-app-top-stories","tag-education","tag-melissa-eichman","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}